<p>I would go so far as to put Davidson into a liberal category.</p>
<p>Hillsdale, Grove City, Franciscan U of STeubenville - all supposedly conservative schools, but you can find plenty of tattooed, pierced, smokers on these campi.</p>
<p>
Oh, come on. He's a professor of linguistics. Despite his obvious liberal/radical leanings, he isn't exactly making MIT into a bastion of "eebul liberalism". And that's an unfair charge to level against Chomsky, too.</p>
<p>Also, Emory isn't exactly liberal, and Harvard may be liberal (70% for Kerry in 2004) but people is Cambridge (85% for Kerry) consider it conservative.
Unfair charge to level against Chomsky? Hardly. He hates his the nation of his people and has ordered that MIT partake in a divestment - he's just as bad as the brits in that he hates Israel, what separates him and makes him worse is the fact that he himself is Jewish. As a conservative Jew, I can speak on behalf of every fellow Jew I know when I say that anti-Zionism is linked absolutely to antisemitism. It's repulsive that he would ever sign such a petition, never mind spearhead the campaign.</p>
<p>Here's an interesting quote from Chomsky made at Harvard addressing the Anthropology department: “I am opposed and have been opposed for many years, in fact, I’ve probably been the leading opponent for years of the campaign for divestment from Israel and of the campaign about academic boycotts.”
He later said that he wouldn't push the divestment cause further, because he felt it would be relative ineffective. He gave three reasons: 1) He didn't particularly like the tactic (whatever that means). 2) That it was wrong in principle. 3) It would be ineffective.
Surely enough, he still signed his name on the petition. He said there were some things wrong with the petition, but still he signed it.</p>
<p>Harvard is very liberal....70% for Kerry?? I don't care what ultra-liberal Cambridge thinks. This list does not list colleges relative to the people in Cambridge, so that is totally irrelevant.</p>
<p>Emory isn't liberal? Visit.</p>
<p>Kafka89 please notice which forum you're posting in. We're talking about Colleges here and there's no need to give your opinion on individuals or slander them. </p>
<p>Frankly I don't care what your political opinions are.</p>
<p>yeah we're talking about colleges. Would you say that Noam Chomsky is not a key figure at MIT? That he is not the pillar of their linguistics department (hugely important part of MIT as a whole, it's more than just a tech school)?</p>
<p>You may not care what my opinions are, but people should be informed - these colleges are a certain way, and the faculty is a very large part of the equation of a college's politics.</p>
<p>I make strong points all around. You don't even make any real points. You've hardly contributed anything to the discussion, while I'm making a case for why the list has some flaws in it.</p>
<p>Even with the disagreements on the lists, it's interesting that all of these lists so far include SO many more in the Mega Liberal and Liberal category than Conservative and Slightly Right of Center. (The labels are even very telling- no "Mega Conservative", or "Slightly Left of Center".) The diversity is definitely not very balanced.</p>
<p>Kafka89 I had no point when you pointed out that Chomsky was at MIT nor when you called him a liberal. My problem was with this phrase:</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Chomsky is a self-loathing Jew who hates his own people
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>Look I have a few Jewish friends that disagree with Israeli policy and they are (for obvious reasons) very offended when someone calls them a 'self-loathing Jew'. You are the only one here being rude and offensive and I have done nothing except kindly ask to to stop with your derogatory claims.</p>
<p>Here's my question to everyone; after reviewing the results thus far, there is an extreme bias towards liberal schools. So, Why do you think there are so few, if any, conservative schools that are ranked high? Granted liberals are more "forward thinking" but being slightly conservative myself, I find it mind-boggling that there is little representation for conservatives in the elite levels of higher learning.</p>
<p>Leprechaun: Very few of the elite schools are conservative because of what the terms Liberal and Conservative seem to mean in regard to colleges. Generally speaking, Conservative is a negative term because it implies rich, old-network people, and not the egalitarian meritocracy that Liberal implies. For example, Princeton has a reputation for rich country club types (at least more so than Harvard or Yale), and therefore has a more conservative reputation.</p>
<p>BoxingLeprechaun, there are three obvious answers to your question, any one of which may or may not be "the truth":</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Few conservatives choose to go into academia, because they prefer to make more money in other venues, while liberals are more content to do socially valuable work (education and research) even if it means they personally profit less. Hence: more liberals than conservatives in academia; or,</p></li>
<li><p>The definition of "liberal" and "conservative" used here (and by most people) is inaccurate; colleges and universities are actually middle of the road overall, it's just that people have been trained to perceive moderate views as being "liberal"; or,</p></li>
<li><p>Academics are typically smart; conservatism is the bastion of know-nothingness; therefore most academics (i.e., smart people) are not conservative.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Enjoy! ;)</p>
<p>You can always go to Patrick Henry College. Sounds right conservative to me! :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Sept. 3, 2007 issue - Patrick Henry College, in Purcellville, Va., is the kind of place that would make most coastal liberals run screaming. A tiny college with about 500 students, its stated goal is to "prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture." Its dorms are filled mostly with kids who have been home-schooled all their lives by Bible-believing Christian parents and who were taught that homosexuality is an abomination and that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden. They aim for White House internships, Supreme Court clerkships and positions with lobbying groups. The minority of Patrick Henry students who don't have Washington in their sights dream of directing Christian movies or, in the case of many of the women there, raising (and home-schooling) families of Christian children.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Would definitely NOT consider Duke as conservative as Vanderbilt or UVA.. possibly moderate though.
Duke's a school in the South but probably the majority of people at Duke are liberal.</p>
<p>agreed. Duke is definitely not as conservative as UVirginia</p>
<p>
[quote]
3. Academics are typically smart; conservatism is the bastion of know-nothingness; therefore most academics (i.e., smart people) are not conservative.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That is how my H and I thought when we were in our 20s.</p>
<p>Then we grew up.</p>
<p>Enjoy.</p>
<p>You didnt grow up, you grew old</p>
<p>I was a conservative in my teens. Then I grew up. ;) </p>
<p>But seriously, I do think a problem for conservatives on many campuses is the association of conservative philosophy with anti-scientific agendas, such as creationism, "Intelligent Design", opposition to stem cell research, global warming skeptics, etc. Each of those issues are aligned with the right in America, like it or not. Academia tends to be pretty pro-science, for understandable reasons. I can see that it would be awkward for some people to balance a "search for truth" approach to life with a "God said it, I believe it, that settles it" point of view, although some do. I understand that the two facets of contemporary conservatism in America - economic and cultural - are not always joined in the same person, but there's enough overlap there that it's not actually surprising that there would be more liberals than conservatives working in academia.</p>
<p>doctorb, I grew wiser, more thoughtful, more observant (not a religious term here), more responsible, more experienced, more sophisticated...</p>
<p>And older. Alas, that was part of the package.</p>
<p>Kluge, you have touched on a really big problem with the term conservative as it is used in modern political parlance. Milton Friedman shunned the term to describe himself or his beliefs, preferring "classical liberal". That describes most of the professors I know who are described by their students as conservatives. Few are creationists (none that I know), some are religious but not H and I, there are some global warming skeptics who demand good science--something beyond "the West is evil", and many who think the modern liberal approach to social policy is a dead end at best. They tend to be intellectual, well read and well educated. And they make well into the six figures because they actually are in great demand by those who need to hire people with technical expertise. </p>
<p>So, being known as a "conservative" really isn't a problem for them.</p>
<p>It seems both you and I are evidence that students should NOT choose a college just because it seems to fit their current political notions. Kids change majors upon exposure to new fields, and kids change their politics upon exposure to new ways of analyzing the world.</p>
<p>...and nothing pleases me more than to see one of my sons take a course from a professor who brings a different perspective to, say, foreign affairs, than my kids or I have, so they can stretch their brains a little. That's one of the best things about college, IMHO.</p>
<p>^^^couldn't agree more.</p>
<p>superwizard, maybe you should tell your friends to realize that they are pariahs among Jews. Judaism is a religion, and we [Jews] have formed a nation, one that maintains an ideology. The ideology and belief that MOST Jews have is that we have a right to Israel (the Zionist belief). And if a Jew disagrees with this ideology (the whole question of divestment and the like obviously ties in here), he is surely going to be ridiculed. Especially if that individual is not extremely orthodox (they believe that we will get Israel when the Messiah comes), he will be ridiculed as a fanatic. If that individual is not a fanatic, but rather has radically different views from the common ideology, he will be ridiculed as being anti-semitic, and therefore, a self-loathing Jew.</p>
<p>I will not take my comment back - anti-Zionism is antisemitism. There is nothing wrong with what I said; it's what I and most other Jews believe.</p>
<p>NOTE:
This is my final comment on the matter. I posted this simply to address superwizard's last remark. From this point forward I will not comment in this thread unless it is directly pertinent to the question of a university's politics.</p>
<p>Uhh I always want to add that Davidson is NOT conservative. If it were, I probably wouldn't be going there.</p>